Friday, June 27, 2008

Tincture Tutorial

I tore into it right away because I purchased a bunch of these $1 dropper bottles for my latest project:I'm going to make my own tinctures! YAY! Do you have any idea how much money I'm about to save??? It's insane! A tiny 1 oz bottle of tincture at the health food stores averages $10-15. I'm about to make a several 4 oz bottles of tincture and, including the price of the bottle itself, it's going to cost me little more than $2.I decided to start with Horehound (our go-to herb for preventing or curing ear infections), and Plantain (an astrigent - good for facial complexion, poison ivy, poison oak, bug bites, etc.)Step 1: Fill a clean jar half full with fresh or dried herbs.Step 2: Pour Apple Cider Vinegar to the very brim.Step 3: Twist the lid on tightly.Step 4: Shake the jar vigorously. Yes, the crazed look is imperative to the process. Look happy! Think of all the money and trips to the health food store you're saving yourself!Step 5: Put a wet cloth in the bottom of your handy-dandy crock-pot. Set to WARM. If you don't have a crock-pot with a warm function, buy one. You deserve it!Cover crock-pot and abandon for several hours- all day if you want, you've got other things to do.

Step 6: Remove from crock-pot and put in your cabinet. Don't forget about it, though! Become a good friend to your new tincture and visit it a couple times a day for a good shake. Refer to Step 4 at least twice a day. If you use fresh herbs, you will be ready to strain out the herbs after 3 days. If you use dried herbs, allow 3 weeks.

15 comments:

I have been wanting to do this for so long. I have several bags of herbs stored in my freezer, so I am going to do it soon!

How does the vinegar extraction compare to the alcohol or glycerin extraction methods? I was thinking about doing the ones for my kids w/ glycerin and then some stronger ones w/ alcohol, but if the vinegar would work like the alcohol I would prefer that. Thanks for posting this!

Ginger, can you tell us what tinctures you are starting out with? Do you use vinegar for each one? I bought a tincture of horehound and some other things for Ellie before she had her surgery (I wanted to amp up her lungs because of the change of pneumonia in the hospital) and a TINY bottle cost $17!! How do you know how much to use?? I'm such a novice!! love, Denise

Hey Ginger!Believe it or not, iused to help my sister-in-law make Black Walnut Tincture. Good for what ails ya! :-) We took it religiously until we ran out then we never made it again after that. The process was WAY more complicated it seems. It was over 5 years ago so maybe I confusing complicated process with disgusting taste! LOL